I just can't stop!

I have seriously fallen in love with spindle spinning. Ever since I bought Abby Franquemont's new book Respect the Spindle. In the book, Abby says that your productivity will go up and maybe even increase above what you are able to produce on a wheel. I believe it. I'm less likely to haul out my wheel, but I have no hesitation about spindling for 5 minutes here and there. I'm getting better too. My singles are more consistent, and I'm dropping my drop spindle less and less. Though I did drop it - point side down - on Spencer twice in the past half hour - don't say I didn't get the look from him.

Knitting olympic update - vest is progressing nicely. I'm less tangled and my tension is ...er...okay I guess. Well, you be the judge. It looks like argyl doesn't it? Then, I'm happy.


And belated Valentines greetings. Here is my Max enjoying his Vday cupcake. Cutie. Loves him, I do.


I will close this blog post with absolute, concrete proof that we are in the throws of some serious global warming here in Labrador. This is a picture of the mighty Churchill (or Hamilton or Grand depending upon your political views) River.

This was taken yesterday. Now, its not broken up or anything, but I certainly would not venture ou on it on skidoo or anything else for that matter. Its February for crying out loud. Old Man Winter - when I said we needed a break, I didn't mean a permanent break. I want you back okay. I'm not too proud to beg. Remember, we just bought a new Skidoo in November. I've been on it once! Thats what happens when I do something in anticipation of enjoying our cold weather. The same thing happened the year we bought the snow plough. (Not that I consider ploughing snow enjoyment). We didn't get hardly any snow.

Olympic Update

I watched the opening ceremonies last evening. They were gorgeous and moving. My step daughter Aimee was telling me that 'a rumour' was circulating on the internet that Arnold Swartzenager would be the final torch bearer and lighting the cauldron. I knew this was wrong and I insisted there was no way a non Canadian would be bringing in the torch. In my mind, it would have to be a great Canadian - a great Canadia athlete - like Wayne Gretzky, I told her. I was beyond excited and more than a little smug to be right.

As soon as the ceremonies began, I began the knitting olympics. I cast on for my vest. A provisional cast on. Note that I didn't swatch (gasp). I decided to cast on for the largest size and immediately regreted it. It was humungous. I ripped it out and recast on 2 sizes down. I may regret this too, but hey, it'll fit someone right? Besides, I've started a Christmas box. More about that later.

My vest is argyl, knit in peices from the bottom up, with intarsia blocks of colour. What a tangled mess I had after the first hour or so. I immediately went out this morning and bought some little plastic bobbins to wind the yarn onto rather than having whole skeins tangled up. Here is how it looks so far.



So, onto the Christmas gift box idea. I've decided that throughout 2010, I will knit various small projects that appeal to me as a knitter. They will be random projects for no one in particular. Then come next Christmas, I will decide if any of these projects will be appropriate for anyone on my gift list. This probably isnt' the most efficient way of gift knitting, but I like the idea of knitting what I like. So far, I have 3 different things in the Christmas gift box. Here they are, in no particular order.

Hmmm, interesting. Until now, I didn't realize they were all for the neck. This larger shawl thingy was something that has been languishing for over a year now, I think. Its from Knitpicks Suri dream, and was an absolute nightmare to knit. Its a brushed alpaca and it was so hard keeping the stitch count straight on such a hairy yarn.
Here is a rusched cowl. I really enjoyed knitting this, and it just flew off of the needles. The yarn is Merisoft by Punta Yarns. The pattern is a freebie called Tamarind Cowl.

And finally here is a little neck kerchief made with my handspun. The pattern is from Joelle Hoverson's book Knitted Gifts. I own many knitting books. Some would say an alarming number really. I have knit 5 projects from this book! I love this book, alot. Its been in my aresnal for some time now, and I keep going back to it.

And speaking of too many knitting books, Greg gave me an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas. I bought 1 knitting book All New Homespun Knits and spinning book called Respect the Spindle. I really want to be a better spindle spinner. I think with the help of this book, I'll get the hang of it. Here is what I've done so far.
I want to share with you a little prize that I won from entering a blog contest. This little cutie was knitted by this lady. She has an etsy store too. Definitly worth checking out. Her patterns are cute.

The Knitting Olympics

The opening ceremonies are about to start...in about 20 minutes. And I will be casting on for this vest. This will be my first Olympics and I'm excited. I also like this vest. I somehow ordered two kits by mistake. Don't know how that happened. It must be the wool fumes. Wish me luck.

I am battling an injury, so I'm not sure that I'll be in peak condition, but I'm sure I'll be able to pull off a spectacular finish. Here's hoping.

Comfy Cardigan

I finished my cardigan. Its from the Knitter's Book of Wool. The yarn is Knitpicks City Tweed, which is a delight to knit. I'm really hoping it will hold up well. I'm not sure I'm over my disappointment in the Knitpicks Swish DK that I knit the Tilted Duster out of a couple of years ago. It pilled like a son of a bitch and I haven't knit a sweater from a knitpicks yarn since. It hasn't turned me off of knitpicks mind you. I still love them - thier prices and service are hard to beat. I do read yarn reviews now, something I didn't really do pre tilted duster days. The City Tweed is a new yarn by knitpicks, so I guess the jury is still out on it.

I bought these buttons at Terry's Tents (a local craft/tenting supply store). Terry told me he just got the buttons in. I love them.

I had debated making buttons from caribou antlers. Kev even brought me back the antlers from his most recent hunt. But I think I'll leave the button making to the experts. These square buttons just suit the cardigan so well.

Overall, I'm happy with the cardigan and I expect it will get plenty of use.

Later Gator

Wanna see something cute?



Yeah, I'm talking about Max, but the mittens are kinda cute too. I dreamed last night that I knit a pair of these in a khaki green colour and had a red stripe on the mittens where the eyes go. You know, like the Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now, I must make them. Which one wears the red? Donnatello? I remember my brother loving them. I wonder would he appreciate a pair of ninja turtle mitten?

The pattern details - "Later 'Gator" mittens from Stitch n Bitch Nation. Knit in the smallest size. Brother Bradley would need a much larger size and some serious pattern altering, so no, I don't think I'll be making them. Knit these in Cascade 220, a work horse yarn that I cannot see any difference in it and Paton's Classic. The mouth is actually knit in Lopi since it twas the only red I had on hand. The teeth are french knots. I finally figured out how to do a french knot.

The designer warns that these mitts will cause impromtu puppet shows. They did indeed. I even ended up getting nipped once or twice. Now I have to make another pair for Morgan. I have this thing about making a pattern twice. I hate doing it.


But, I love Morgan. So, I will make them. I have to find the actual sewon eyes for him though. I glued Max's on, but I'm afraid glue on eyes won't cut it for Morgan, as picky as he is.

Random Sunday or How I love Felted Slippers

In keeping with my once weekly random blog post, here is this week's offering.

• Fiddle head mittens - FINISHED. Totally inspired by Patty finishing her's ahead of me, even though she bought her kit at least a couple of months after me.
• Squirrel Sampler Mittens. By the same designer as the fiddleheads, just not a kit this time. I love, love, love them. They are addicting to knit. I'm planning on making the liners out of knitpicks Suri dream which is a brushed alpaca. In theory this should be nice, but I'm betting (based on the swatch that I knit) it will be a pain in the arse to knit.
• Comfy Cardi - working on the skirt. I will likely finish this by the end of the month. I'm actually spacing this out now. I gave myself 3 months to finish it. It astounds me that I may finish it in a month

• My first FO for 2010 - felted slippers, crocheted at that. Wow, my first finished FO for the year is crochet. And oh, how darling they are.
  

I just love how warm these are. They fit quite nicely. They are a little long in the toes, but thats okay. I felted these in my front loading washer (tis true!) I have to wash them about 3 times to get them down to the size that I wanted. Just in time really because, I have somehow misplaced my French Press felted slippers (see several posts back)

• Upcoming plans? 'Later Gator' mittens from StitchnBitch nation for Max and Morgan
• Lace. I have tonnes of lace weight around, and have yet to knit a single lace weight item. I want to, I really do. I should have added lace to my fiber goals for 2010. I even signed up for the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. I'm delusional really. There is no way I can do that, but I'd like to.
  

Random Saturday

In my efforts to blog more, may I present Random Saturday. Every Saturday I will post some photos and descriptions of what I've been up to this week.

First up....Jerky.


Amy is gone back to Sherbrooke. She left a lot of stuff behind. I had to box up much of it. She loves caribou jerky and was hoping that I would send some. I thought it was a very remote possibility as we have no caribou. (not from lack of trying on Kev and his brother John's part) But, as luck would have it, we were invited to Nat and Blairs for supper on Thursday evening for caribou burgers. Blair gave me about a pound of the ground meat with the cure and seasonings all done. All I had to do was put it in my jerky pistol and fire.

Next up are my fiddlehead mittens. I was on a real roll with these babies. I have one finished - lining and all. The second one is done with just the lining to knit. My right wrist is giving me some grief so I've been knitting continental more often to try to allieviate some of the tenderness. Its much faster. I had the thumb gusset all completed and was almost up to the part where I had to decrease for the top of the mitten when I decided to turn the lining into the mitt to see how it was going. Well, you can see what a collosal mistake I made. I put the thumb on the wrong side.


And finally I'll show off my comfy cardigan.

I strongly suspect that I will have this one finished in time for next Saturday's random post. I only have to finish the left sleeve, then pick up stitches at the waist and knit a 'skirt' onto the cardigan. Then I have to seam the underarms and weave in the ends, sew on buttons (find buttons that I like first) and then block. Well, I'm hoping to have most of the knitting done by next Saturday then, I'm not totally sure about it being actually finished, finished, ya know?